TankerProa – IWSA Member

The combination of the sailing space frame and the vessel to be propelled turns the combination into a Proa configuration, where a Proa is a typically a small sailing canoe, having a sail, with an attached outrigger on one side primarily used in the past for ocean passages by islanders living in the Pacific Ocean. The outrigger allows the Proa to carry a sail area much larger than the canoe could carry without the outrigger. In this invention the vessel to be propelled is like a large canoe, and the sailing space frame provides the outrigger, as well as the needed sails, rudder, and dagger board components needed to convert the coupled vessel into a viable sailing vessel. The large sail area provided by the sailing space frame for the propelled vessel allows propulsion of the cargo or tanker vessel under sail power, without the need for operation of the vessel’s diesel engines for propulsion purposes. The energy requirements for the operation of the TankerProaTM are minimal, due to the balance design of the sails and dagger board rudder, and outrigger components, and are all provided by wind, wave, and solar sources.

We provide a sailing space frame that couples to and converts a tanker or a cargo vessel into an efficient sailing vessel for the trans ocean segment of their voyage between ports- without the use of diesel fuel.

1) WE ELIMINATE PRODUCTION OF CO2 AND OTHER EXHAUST POLLUTANTS.

oThe TankerProa converts a tanker vessel into a sailing vessel by providing an outrigger to stabilize the vessel and allow it to carry two 400-foot tall masts, with sufficient sail area to completely supplant the use of the diesel engines for propulsion.

oTankerProa can make the propelled vessel an efficient sailing vessel capable of sailing on a broad reach, a close reach, and of course, downwind (contrary to other wind based propulsion systems, such as kite based propulsion).

2) WE ELIMINATE THE USE OF EXPENSIVE HIGH SULFUR DIESEL FUEL AND INCREASE CURRENT SAILING SPEED.

oWe eliminate the noise pollution of the Cargo Vessel’s Diesel Engines, which harms whales and other sea creatures that rely on their voices to communicate and navigate.

oThe TankerProa can temporarily transform a tanker vessel into a pure sail powered vessel for greater than 95% of its trans-ocean voyage along the trade wind routes, without the use of any diesel fuel.

oThe rolling forces induced must limit the size of the typical mast with sail on the vessel. The TankerProaTM eliminates all these problems because it has an outrigger, and thus can carry sail orders of magnitude greater in sail area than the competition. This in turn allows the TankerProaTM to provide the full propulsive force required for the vessel without the use of their diesel engines.

oBecause of the space frame configuration and adaptability to wind direction, the wind can be used from any quarter to provide the needed propulsion without inducing rolling in the propelled vessel.

3) BY STABILIZING THE TANKER AND CARGO VESSELS WITH THE SAILING FRAME TECHNOLOGY, WE ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR BALLAST WATER AND STOP THE CONTAMINATION OF DESTINATION PORT WATERS.

oFor tanker vessels, TankerProa can propel them when fully loaded, as well as when emptied. For empty tanker vessels, the use of the TankerProa eliminates the requirement for ballast water (and the required clean up before this water is dumped), since the TankerProa stabilizes the vessel with its outrigger while significantly reducing the total vessel tonnage to be propelled when empty (~ two million pounds).

oWhen the empty tanker vessel is in the origin port preparing to go to the new destination port it can take on ballast water in about 45 minutes before leaving from the port to go to the nearby TankerProa location offshore, it can dump ballast water from this port once coupled to the TankerProa. This de-ballasting process will only take about 1.5 hours. The close proximity of the TankerProa decoupling/coupling locations, where it takes on ballast water or performs the de-ballasting, relative to the origin or destination port location, means that there are no invasive species being introduced, in either origin or destination port proximities.

oBy preventing to obsolesces of 60,000 tanker vessels for fleet owners who cannot afford ballast water sterilization equipment on each vessel costing about one million dollars.